Pages

Sunday, January 27, 2008

Going the Way of the Friendster

I'm on Facebook. And so is my wife. And two of my brothers. And several friends from church. Some bosses too. Some old friends that I haven't seen since high school. A lot of people that I don't know that I went to high school with (Actually, the latter, none of the former). Old co-workers. Blogging buddies (some of you, incidentally).

And about 5 million others. Facebook really took off with the advent of allowing anyone with an email address to become a user. And that's had its draws. My wife, for one, loves the ability to get back in touch with a bunch of friends that she hasn't had real contact with in years.

But, you know.... I'm just not feeling the Facebook love.

And apparently, I'm not the only one.This professor says that the popularity of the social-networking site is going to diminish. He calls it a holiday romance, only meant to last for a very brief, but passionate, fling. I kind of see it as a supernova - except without all the flash.

There's too many danged applications. The place gets cluttered with all of the apps. There's not too many ways of staying connected with your Fb friends, besides the occasional Wall or Superpoke. Outside of that, it really doesn't have much character on its own. It used to be a site primarily aimed and for college students and maybe some profs. But now with the gates wide open, it seems to have the gears grinding to become another MySpace - only without the saving grace of the music.

So, the popularity should be waning soon. It'll go out of style, kind of like Blogger, and only us dinosaurs and some hard-core enthusiasts will remain, along with some weirdos, spammers who attacked too late and never left and... well, a lot of ghostblogs.

10 comments:

I signed-up for facebook a while back & stayed with it for around a month before spontaneously disabling my own account. You're right - it just seemed bloated with stupid apps that have no redeeming value & not much else. When my brother asked if I had opted out I said, Yes - social networking for the anti-social... didn't really work for me.

It's better than MySpace but I'm with you guys. I don't really care for it. Of course I haven't put all that much effort into it either. I remember a year or so ago, the "experts" were saying that social networking sites would spell the end of blogging. That hasn't happened and I believe it won't happen for some of the very reasons you mentioned.

wow, three whole comments and not even one is mine. i'm popular. finally!

arachnerd,

i don't think that facebook is that bad. and some of the apps are fun, but it's annoying that you have to get the app and then try to send an invite to the app to all your friends (in my case, that's not too many).

i just don't see it being as immensely popular as it is now, not for long, anyhow.

it's kind of like how that favorite undiscovered band becomes big and then all of a sudden, y'know Switchfoot isn't at the top of the radar anymore.

art,

i just don't see social net sites as replacing blogs, per se. social-networking is 1) more for teens and young adults and 2) they meet different needs. so, while one may cut into the traffic of the other, they don't necessarily overlap. i'm more for blogging, my wife more for social. and that's cool. and speaking of which...

i know you love it. and i know that it is a good thing because of the effect it has had on my wife (being able to reconnect with old friends from all over the globe who are presently all over the globe).

so, it's a pleasant thing for some, and a small distraction for others. that's not a bad thing. all i'm saying is, the enormous popularity that it holds right now probably won't last. the bubble will burst.